The best Chopin Etude arrangement ever

Описание: The Studies on Chopin's Études are a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's études by Leopold Godowsky, composed between 1894 and 1914. They are renowned for their technical difficulty: critic Harold C. Schonberg called them "the most impossibly difficult things ever written for the piano." Several of the studies (for example, the study "Ignis Fatuus" on Chopin's Étude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2) put the original right-hand part into the left hand; several others are for the left hand alone (for example, the study on the "Revolutionary" Étude, transposed to C♯ minor). Two of the studies even combine two études; the better known of these, called "Badinage," combines both the G♭ (the "Black Key" Étude of Op. 10 and the "Butterfly" étude of Op. 25).

The number of studies is often given as 54, with Op. 25, No. 2 having one study written as a considerably different ossia of another; a similar ossia also exists for one of the studies on Op. 25, No. 3, so the total number of studies can be taken to be 55. In contrast, Godowsky's original numbering scheme runs only to 48.

Opus 25 No. 1
1st Study in A♭ major (left hand only)
2nd Study in A♭ major (Like a piece for four hands)
3rd Study in A♭ major


《 Wikipedia 》

"The Studies on Chopin's Études No.25" op.25 no.1 3rd study by Leopold Godowsky.

IMHO it's better than the original composition, arranged so brilliantly that its modern beauty is almost unbelievable.

Pf. Marc Andre Hamelin (Hyperion Records 2000)